Kremlin forced to ease internet restrictions as Putin’s approval slips — Bloomberg

The report, citing people familiar with the matter, said negative public reaction to traffic throttling, including moves targeting the Telegram messaging app, has prompted the Kremlin to reassess measures it feared were eroding support for Putin.

“The push by Russia’s FSB security service for tougher controls has prompted some top officials to warn of political and economic risks from barring access to the internet, according to people familiar with the discussions,” Bloomberg wrote.

The government has been gradually throttling social networks such as YouTube, Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The Kremlin also pushed citizens toward a state “super-app” called Max, modeled on China’s WeChat, and at times sharply restricted access to Telegram to encourage the shift.

Mass mobile internet outages that lasted weeks in Moscow in March 2026 appeared to be tests of additional controls over Russia’s online infrastructure, Bloomberg said. Officials sought to justify the disruptions as “security measures.”

“There’s also been a push to restrict Russians’ usage of virtual private networks, or VPNs, that help them to evade bans on blocked content,” the report added.

“Trust in Putin has fallen by more than eight percentage points since January to 67.8%, according to the state-run pollster VTsIOM. By early March, it had reached its lowest level since the war began.”